Pak helped Taliban even after Sep 11 attacks

NEW DELHI, Dec 14: A noted Pakistani weekly has come out with a proof about involvement of regular Pakistani army and ISI with Taliban even after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

"The Friday Times" narrates a story of a decorated Pakistani armyman, who won several medals including one that every cadet entering the Pakistan Military Academy dreams of, and was asked to fight along Taliban in Afghanistan post September nine attack.

The news report authored by noted Pakistani scribe Imtiaz Gul said a soldier Abdul Nasr (not the real name) had met Mufti Shahmzai of Jaish-e-Mohammed in Karachi and was also acquainted with Colonel Sultan Ameer Imam of ISI.

"We crossed into Afghanistan via Chaman on September 23, 12 days after the attack in the United States," the soldier told the Friday Times.

Much to his surprise, he spotted Pakistanis in thousands, from militant organisation like Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashker-e-Taiba, Harkat-ul-Mujahideen and even the Pakistan army, setting up camps for forays into Taliban land.

"We met at least 80 officers from different armed forces including senior officers of the ISI....Registeration was being handled by Jaish. It was all being coordinated from Mufti Rasheed’s Sakhi Ahsan mosque in Karachi."

Nsar estimated some 2000 Pakistanis were gathered near the durand line as well as 400 Arabs.

"We were moved to a premises that belonged to the Kandahar Corps.....And soon Arabs were segregated by the Taliban," the soldier was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Nsar was singled out for his engineering and technical skills and was asked to man the air defence systems at Kabul and Bagram airbase.

However, after the American bombing of Afghanistan, the soldier had to return after a sharpnel pierced his thigh and incapacitated him.

Nsar tried to get back into the army but was refused. "I am ashamed of those that sold out their Muslim brothers. I am ashamed at and upset with those people that turned their back on Afghanistan when the tide turned and the Americans told them what was the wise thing to do.

"I regret that so far nothing has happened to those that misled others in the name of Jehad," the weekly quoted him as saying apparently hinting about Pakistan. (PTI

Indians among illegal emigrants from Lanka

COLOMBO, Dec 14: For years, it has been a predominantly domestic phenomenon in Sri Lanka: large numbers of aspiring emigrants adopting illegal means to reach Europe, but recent trends indicate that Indians are also keen to use the island nation for human smuggling.

Since August, batches of Indians have been found preparing to use Sri Lanka as a transit point on their way to Italy or Greece, authorities here say.

Fourteen of them — all Sikhs from Punjab — are in a prison near here. They were arrested three months ago from a hotel in which they were waiting to be taken by ship to Italy. Four of them were allegedly carrying fake passports.

Earlier, a large group of 43 Indians was sent back home after they were found waiting in vain for a vessel to pick them up from the southern port city of galle in September.

Each of them had paid Rs two or three lakh to agents in India who had promised to get them on board vessels that would take them to Italy.

Sri Lanka has been battling human trafficking for years, as hundreds seek to flee the island looking for better prospects. It is a thriving network of local agents and their foreign counterparts who procure or forge documents like passports, visas and papers that identify the travellers as ‘Seamen’.

It could be the tip of the iceberg, say the authorities after speaking to the 43 people. We do not know if many more Indians have successfully boarded ships in the past, as only a few of them have been caught.

Based on their statements, two agents in New Delhi have been identified, and the economic offences wing of the Delhi police is investigating the racket.

The main reason for these agents to send their ‘clients’ to Sri Lanka is that illegal emigration is far more established in its coastal areas, thanks to some lax monitoring, authorities say.

It is different in India, where ships intending to pick up illegal passengers will not come close to the coast but remain many kms away to avoid coast guard vessels. Agents cannot convince people to board a smaller boat unless they sight the ship, they say. In Sri Lanka, these ships are brought closer to the coast to pick up these emigrants.

This group of 43, which came to Colombo in two or three batches, was not arrested, but dropped in front of the Indian High Commission by the staff of a hotel after its management found that they had missed their ship.

Five Bangladeshis and six Pakistanis who were also with them were sent to their respective missions.

All of them had valid tourist visas for Sri Lanka, but Indian consular officials seized their passports and other documents for verification. They were given emergency travel documents to return home.

The seized documents included ‘continuous discharge certificates’ issued by authorities in India to sea workers and identity cards issued by the Government of Panama to sailors, indicating that the modus operandi was to get them across the seas by making them pose as sailors.

Indian consular officials are trying to obtain the release of the 14 still in prison as they are yet to be charged with any offence. Sri Lankan police say even trying to leave the country without valid papers is an offence.

The Indian mission has received requests from family members and political leaders from Punjab to obtain the release of these prisoners, pleading that they are innocent victims of a racket and not offenders. (PTI)

Iran rejects US charges on secret nuclear activity

DUBAI, Dec 14: Rejecting the US charge that it has been secretly developing the two new facilities to make nuke weapons, Iran today said its nuclear energy activities were for "peaceful objectives" and were in accordance with the international rules and conventions.

"We have no nuclear activity or studies outside the supervision of the international atomic energy agency (IAEA)," Iranian Government spokesman Abdollah Ramezanzadeh told the official new agency Irna in Tehran.

CNN on Thursday cited unnamed US officials as claiming that American satellites had spotted two Iranian places, one in the central city of Arak and the other in Natanz in the Isfahan province, which suggested they could be used for making nuclear weapons.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Hamid-Reza Asefi stressed that Iran’s nuclear energy activities were for "peaceful objectives" and denounced us claims as being aimed at diverting the world public opinion from the Zionist Israeli regime’s threats, the official said.

"Such American propaganda against Iran is not new and is is intended to divert the world public opinion from the zionist regime’s threats to the region at this sensitive juncture," he said yesterday.

"Iran believes it has the right to carry out necessary researches for peaceful use of nuclear energy and no country can deprive it from this natural right," Asefi added.

The official reiterated that the Islamic Republic’s nuclear activities were "very transparent and under repeated supervision" of the iaea.

"Iran’s steps in the field of using nuclear energy are in accordance with international rules and conventions," he added

The Islamic republic has repeatedly announced that its nuclear activities are for civilian purposes and opened the facilities to regular supervision of the IAEA which has confirmed their peaceful intentions.

Washington has already been claiming that Iran may use its under-construction plant in southern Bushehr, built with Russian assistance, for developing nuclear arms.

Both Iran and Russia have rejected these allegations. Moscow announced in August that it intended to build the second plant in Bushehr.

Iran has also said its bid to complete the plant, "given the `enormous sum’ which the country has already spent on its construction." (PTI)

Israel nabs Palestinian suspects, peace plan lags

JERUSALEM, Dec 14 : Israeli forces detained at least 14 Palestinians in the west bank in a new sweep for militants today as international peace efforts looked likely to be eclipsed by wider middle east developments.

An Israeli army spokesman said 12 "terror suspects" were nabbed overnight around Ramallah, political base of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and two in the area of Bethlehem. Troops continued scouring the biblical city after daybreak.

The army killed two militants in the west bank yesterday. Hamas, an Islamic group sworn to Israel’s destruction which has spearheaded suicide bombings in a more than two-year-old independence uprising, issued new calls for revenge.

The United States has tried to cap the violence to keep focus on its campaign to disarm Iraq, and forms part of a ‘’quartet’’ of middle east mediators due to meet next week on a peace plan initiated more that six months ago.

But diplomats said it was unlikely the so-called "road map" for three-stage rapprochement between Israel and the Palestinians, culminating in security for the former and statehood for the latter, would be completed on December 20.

"The signal the United States is sending us is that you should not expect a completed road map. Our side is arguing back on that," a European diplomat said yesterday.

The Quartet mediators — the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — broadly agree what the plan should include but disagree on when to release it.

The Israelis and Palestinians disagree on the more fundamental question of how specific the plan should be on when the two sides should take particular steps.

In Israel there was little surprise at the Turgid timetable, pointing at general elections scheduled for January 28.

"Washington has made it clear that no final plan will be presented before the new Government is in power," an official in Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s office said. "Of course, that new Government will then have to approve the plan."

Palestinians considered the United States acting again as Israel’s guardian ally.

"This shows that the American policy intervenes only for the good of Dharon, not for the good of the peace process," Palestinian official Sstated.

Most in the region also believe the road map will go nowhere until the iraq issue is resolved.

One senior israeli security source saw washington applying "peace pressure" on israel ahead of a possible offensive on baghdad.

"america’s war will not be very popular in the Arab world, so we expect it to apply more ‘peace pressure’ on Israel to accommodate Palestinian negotiating demands," the source said.(AGENCIES)

US troops in Gulf may see peaceful Christmas

DOHA, Dec 14: General Tommy Franks isn’t saying how much of the force his US Central command wielded in a computer-simulated war this week was virtual, and how much would be at his fingertips for use right now against Iraq.

But there is no sign of a stampede by America to cram more forces and weapons into the Gulf to support an invasion reckoned to require 250,000 troops and five or six aircraft carriers.

War rhetoric has also retreated from its November levels.

President George W Bush promises to take time for a thorough assessment of Iraq’s mammoth declaration on banned weapons to the United Nations, and with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld saying this will take weeks, many US troops in the region should be able to relax over the coming holiday season.

Rather than war with Iraq, it will be Christmas at home for the several thousand US navy sailors and airmen of the USS George Washington aircraft carrier battle group, who only last week were braced for orders prolonging their stay in the region.

The carrier passed through the strait of Gibraltar earlier this week on its way back to the United States.

The USS Harry Truman battle group is on its way to the region and the USS constellation is due in the area this weekend, according to analysts. The Japan-based USS Kitty Hawk carrier battle group is somewhere at sea, its location secret.

Rumsfeld visited Franks’ new mobile headquarters in Qatar this week for a look at the exercise, to sign a new deal with the Emirate allowing Eashington to further upgrade bases here, and thank States in the region for help in the "war on terrorism".

He would not be drawn on whether he planned a quiet Christmas. This was "perhaps the most stressful time that any of us have ever seen in our lives", Franks told the troops in a "town hall meeting" with the Defence Secretary.

But only one question out of a dozen he and rRmsfeld fielded on military housing, dental benefits and career prospects was aimed at finding out if war with Iraq was imminent.

"We are at an early stage," Rumsfeld answered. "It would be out of line for me to opine." Bush had brought the matter to the world’s attention and "Iraq is in the process of responding...Time will tell".

Reports of US deployments have dried up considerably since October. In its latest assessment dated December 16, the military web site globalsecurity.org says there is now too little data for a reliable picture of current deployments.

It reckons there are about 50,000 personnel — of which 10,000 are army and the rest sailors and airmen — and 370 combat aircraft, including European Command forces in Turkey.

The US and its NATO allies needed 1,000 aircraft in the 1999 bombing campaign against Yugoslavia and analysts say they would use the same or more for an attack on Iraq.

Troop levels in recent years have averaged 20,000 to 25,000 and some 200 aircraft, globalsecurity says.

According to the analysts, satellite imagery of the harbour at the Indian ocean island of Diego Garcia showed two dozen ships loaded with military gear were still at anchor in mid-November.

But the imagery also showed shelters had been completed for the formidable B-2 stealth bomber, so that it could be used against Baghdad if Bush ordered. (AGENCIES)

Pro-military bloc set to take last Pak region

KARACHI, Dec 14: A pro-military coalition won the key post of Speaker in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh today, clearing the way for it to take power and defeat former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in her traditional stronghold.

Syed Muzaffar Hussain Shah, joint candidate of the pro-military Pakistan Muslim League (PML-QA) and regional ally Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), won 90 votes in the Sindh Assembly, comfortably beating his nearest rival.

Jam Saifullah Dharejo, backed by Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and a coalition of hardline Islamic parties, secured 73 votes in the 168-seat Assembly. The other five seats will be decided by by-elections.

The result of weeks of political jockeying means the exiled Bhutto is in opposition in all four of Pakistan’s provincial assemblies and in the National Assembly, where the PML-QA leads a pro-military bloc that includes the MQM.

Today’s result will be particularly bitter for the popular leader, because she was born and raised in Sindh. The PPP was the biggest single party in the Assembly, but it failed to muster enough votes for an outright majority.

The Deputy Speaker is expected to be elected later in the day, with the position of provincial Chief Minister settled on Monday. The latter post is now expected to go to Mohammad Ali Maher, put forward by the PML-QA/MQM bloc.

The PPP said it would boycott the contest for Deputy Speaker after accusing its opponents of breaking election rules. The balance of power in the Sindh Assembly reflects that on a national level, where the PML-QA depends on myriad smaller parties for its thin majority.

Political commentators are concerned over the fragility of the ruling coalition, which has vowed to maintain key security and economic policies, popular in the west, that were introduced under the rule of military President General Pervez Musharraf.

That fragility was demonstrated in late november when the MQM announced it was withdrawing its support for the PML-QA, only to reverse that decision after it was satisfied with measures taken by police against a rival faction in its stronghold of Karachi.

The PPP is joined in opposition in the Sindh Assembly by the religious Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), which scored huge gains in the October 10 general election by campaigning on a fiercely anti-US platform.

The MMA controls the North West Frontier Province and has a share of power in Baluchistan, the two Pakistani regions bordering Afghanistan where Pakistani forces helped by US intelligence personnel are hunting Al Qaeda and Taliban remnants.

The MMA and PPP have little in common ideologically, but both oppose the sweeping powers President Musharraf awarded himself in the election run-up that ensure he remains the most powerful person in Pakistan even after the return of civilian rule.

He has the right to dismiss Parliament and heads a National Security Council which will oversee key policy decisions. He extended his presidential term for five years, banned Bhutto from coming home to fight the election and is accused of backing the PML-QA. (AGENCIES)

Smallpox vaccinations start in US

WASHINGTON, Dec 14: The United States today started smallpox vaccinations to protect America from a possible bio-terrorism attack, news reports said.

Several dozen doctors at the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington received the first vaccinations today.

They will be followed by some 500,000 troops headed for Iraq and Southwest Asia. A second phase of vaccinations will target "first responders" to emergencies, such as police, rescue and health workers.

The Washington Post newspaper estimated that up to 10 million people would receive the vaccination.

US President George W Bush on Friday announced the plan to vaccinate troops and emergency workers against smallpox, saying it would guarantee that the nation was ready to react rapidly to any smallpox attack.

In line with the broader policy, Bush as commander-in-chief said he would take the vaccine, along with US troops, but added that neither his family nor staff would do so.

"Our Government has no information that a smallpox attack is imminent," Bush said Friday. Eventually, most Americans may be offered the vaccine against a disease that was officially eradicated more than two decades ago but kept alive in research and defence laboratories.

Medical experts have expressed reservations about the vaccination programme, saying the dangers of side-effects to the vaccination carry a higher risk than a bio-terrorist attack.

According to estimates, 1,000 people per million could suffer health problems as a result of the vaccine. Fifteen of them could have long-term side effects and one or two may die.

Recent surveys showed that many Americans were prepared to be vaccinated in spite of the health risks.

US intelligence agencies fear that four nations, including Iraq, possess the virus that has killed millions through the ages.

Routine smallpox vaccinations ended in the United States in 1972. The disease was declared eradicated worldwide in 1980, three years after the last naturally occurring case in Somalia. (DPA)

Saddam foes urge federal, tolerant Iraq

LONDON, Dec 14: Opponents of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein met in London today to map out a future for the country and call for a federal, tolerant Iraq in the event Saddam is ousted from power.

Up to 1,000 people, including 330 delegates and scores of reporters and security guards, gathered at a plush hotel on the invitation of a committee representing six opposition groups recognised by the United States.

Washington has modelled this meeting on the one staged in Germany a year ago to forge an interim Government in Afghanistan following the collapse of the Taliban Government.

The extent to which the iraq delegates have support in their homeland is unclear. Saddam has now been in power for 30 years and most of the delegates have been in exile for decades.

The meeting, which had been postponed three times due to arguments about who should control it, heard calls for a federal Iraq, liberated from Saddam’s Ba’ath Party, and for an Iraq free of extremism or foreign domination.

Ahmad Chalabi, who has the best connections in Washington of all the Iraqi exiles, said the plight of the Iraqi people had largely been ignored.

"The nations that equipped Saddam with his weapons of mass destruction are punishing the Iraqi people for having them," he told the conference, referring to 12 years of UN sanctions on Iraq that have destroyed its economy but left Saddam in power.

"The United States have let us down many times, but I am proud to say that President George W Bush has adopted the opposition’s programme for democracy in Iraq," Chalabi added.

Jalal Talabani, leader of the patriotic union of Kurdistan — one of two Kurdish parties which control Northern Iraq —said the Kurds wanted a federal state as part of a unified Iraq.

"Federalism is practised in 70 countries worldwide. It will foster unity in Iraq," said Talabani, adding that the Iraqi Kurds had no desire to create an independent country. Abdelaziz Hakim, a senior official in the Tehran-based Shi’ite Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution of Iraq (SCIRI), warned any future Government must safeguard the country’s assets, mainly its vast oil reserves, from foreign domination.

"We must be careful not to allow foreign hegemony over the wealth of Iraq," Hakim said to cries of "praise to Mohammad" from his supporters in the conference hall.

SCIRI and the patriotic union of Kurdistan are two of four groups at the conference which have formed a loose alliance known as the group of four. The others are the Kurdistan Democratic Party and former members of Saddam’s Ba’ath Party.

The four are opposed to the two remaining groups at the conference: The Iraqi National Congress, which is led by former banker Ahmad Chalabi, and a monarchist movement.

All six groups are recognised by the United States, which coaxed them together to form what could effectively be a Government-in-exile. US officials visited London to push for the conference after attempts to convene it in Amsterdam and Brussels failed.

It comes as President Bush, with British Prime Minister Tony Blair as his closest ally, keeps up the pressure on Saddam to abide by UN resolutions and disclose and destroy any weapons of mass destruction Iraq may possess.

Washington has vowed to disarm Iraq by force if necessary and has also publicly called for a "regime change" in Baghdad.

Iraq says it has no banned weapons to scrap and has handed the United Nations a 12,000 declaration to support its argument.

As the delegates arrived at the London conference, they were met by a protest of around 50 people organised by the workers’ Communist Party of Iraq, which opposes Saddam but places little faith in the conference.

"These people are taking their orders from george bush and Tony Blair," one of the protesters, said Arman, told newsmen.

"They will run Iraq by the gun," he added, as the protesters shouted through megaphones and waved their party flag. (AGENCIES)

Opposition groups urge democratic post: Saddam iraq

LONDON, Dec 14: Iraqi opposition leaders called for a "democratic, pluralistic and federal" Iraq at the opening of a two-day conference today designed to map out a common strategy in anticipation of a US-led regime change in Baghdad.

Speakers portrayed the meeting of more than 300 dissidents as proof that the Iraqi opposition, long dismissed by critics as a disparate collection of bickering factions, was capable of overcoming differences in pursuit of its goal of removing President Saddam Hussein.

But they also recognized that they did not speak for the entire opposition, part of which has shunned the gathering.

"We do not claim to represent all the opposition ... But differences must remain within limits," said Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) chief Jalal Talabani.

Massoud Barzani, whose Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) shares control of a Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq with the puk, drew a round of applause by calling for keeping up contacts with the boycotters "because Iraq belongs to all Iraqis."

Both Kurdish chiefs strongly defended the concept of a "federal" Iraq, with Talabani arguing that it would unite, rather than divide, the country’s ethnic communities and Barzani urging the conference to adopt the concept of an Iraqi Federation.

The two major Kurdish parties, who have set up their own administrations in the western-protected northern enclave, fear the autonomy they have enjoyed over the past decade might be a casualty of a US-led military campaign against Baghdad. (AFP)

| home | state | national | business | editorial | advertisement | sports
| international | weather | mailbag | suggestions | search | subscribe | send mail |